Between Recline and Repose

“The body is a weight although it’s also lightness,” writes Aaditya Aggarwal in the AM10 journal’s penultimate text, quoting Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart (as did Catrin Menai’s piece, published in January). The Toronto-based writer and programmer continues the restless, breathlessly allusive tenor of much of this series with a sparklingly poetic essay on the image of the resting or reclining female figure, who turns away from the spectator’s gaze. Roving through sources ranging from Hollywood and Indian cinemas, the photographs of Dayanita Singh, and contemporary artist-filmmakers including Moyra Davey and Tulapop Saenjaoren, Aggarwaal’s is is a criticism which does not aim for conclusiveness or didacticism but seeks the production of new, inherently comparative expressions and poetics instead from looking indiscriminately across media and their contexts; an apt mirror for the mission of Artes Mundi, and of the writing produced for this journal over the last few months.

Authors

Files